Eight women have accused Filner of sexual harassment and the first to do so, his former communications director Irene McCormack Jackson, filed a lawsuit against the mayor last week. Berger’s letter refers to this lawsuit.

Berger’s letter acknowledged that a lack of sexual harassment training does not excuse inappropriate behavior, and he even threw in a slightly altered line from Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” song: “You don’t need a weatherperson to tell you which way the wind blows.”

However, Berger argued that “many — if not most — people do not know what is and what is not illegal sexual harassment under California law.”

Assistant City Attorney Paul Cooper called this argument “absurd.”

“Filner’s argument that if he had just received some training he would not have sexually harassed these women is obviously absurd,” Cooper told POLITICO on Thursday. “You don’t need sexual harassment training to know that it’s not okay to bully, intimidate, and harass women.”

However, Cooper added that “under the law, the City will likely be held liable for his actions if found out to be true.”

He explained that the city’s potential liability is the reason why the City Attorney filed a cross-complaint against the Mayor.

The San Diego City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve this complaint and sue Filner for the costs incurred from McCormack Jackson’s lawsuit. The City Council also declined Tuesday to defend Filner or pay for his legal representation.

Berger’s letter anticipated that the city might refuse to defend Filner. He wrote that if this were to be the decision, “it will be a political, not a rational decision.”

“Had the City provided mandatory sexual harassment training to Mayor Filner, Ms. McCormack Jackson may never have brought her lawsuit,” Berger wrote.

Yet former city Chief Operating Officer Jay Goldstone took issue with Berger’s letter late Wednesday, saying that Filner’s office, and not the city, canceled training sessions, according to the Voice of San Diego. Two City Hall sources told the Voice of San Diego that these training sessions would have specified that the state law required sexual harassment training.

Gloria Allred, McCormack Jackson’s attorney, agreed with Berger that the city could be liable.

“We believe that we have a strong case against both the Mayor and the City of San Diego,” Allred told POLITICO in an email. “California discrimination laws provide that an employer is strictly liable for the sexual harassment engaged in by the employer’s supervisor or manager whether or not the employer was aware of the sexual harassment. The City is liable for the sexual harassment of the Mayor as he supervised Irene.”

The San Diego City Attorney’s office released Berger’s letter two days after a local ABC affiliate filed a public records request.